If you are a strong believer in formal methodologies for software development, you must read this book.You will hate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F_krAy2d74

At places, the Agile movement is more than just about avoiding responsibilities. It is about picking the easy fights based on dogmas rather than reality.

Why read it ?

If you are a strong believer in formal methodologies for software development, you must read this book.

You will hate it. If you have doubts about the usefulness of recipes for how to develop software, you definitely should read this book, and you’ll love it.

It is not just about methodologies. It is also about programming languages, garbage collectors, assertions, dogmas, rice on chessboards. It is about money, project, technology and more. But above all, it is about people.

You are deliberately lowering the expectations of what you are advocating to be able to claim success.

Software engineering is a trade where the lucky paranoids survive, just being paranoid is not enough.

At places, the Agile movement is more than just about avoiding responsibilities. It is about picking the easy fights based on dogmas rather than reality.

Google’s ‘Do no evil’ motto has become as void of substance as the virtuous claims of those who subscribed to Playboy for the crosswords.

Focusing on the process rather than the deliverable allows for the perfect formalization of the production of intrinsically imperfect software.

Granted, reinventing the wheel is expensive. But guess what? So is reuse.

Architectures don’t fail before being implemented, so architects are never held responsible for failures.

When a project succeeds using Agile methodologies, it is in spite of them.
Not thanks to them.

Tour

Bergamo - Italy

Author carreer and biography

Born in 1965, Darius has a master’s degree and a PhD from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His focus is legacy modernization, articulated around compilers for legacy languages. Darius is the founder and CEO of Raincode (www.raincode.com), main designer and implementer of its core technology, an acclaimed speaker in academic and industrial circles.

Personal motivations & special thanks

This pointless blah-blah can go on for pages, but essentially, Darius is a geek. Building software systems is what he likes best. After his family. After chocolate, and at par with music.

Reviews

“Darius has been entertaining and thought provoking with a touch of iconoclasm – bringing down all software-process “religions”.”

Eleni Stroulia on Twitter, Professor in the Department of Computing Science – University of Edmonton

“The book’s biggest contribution is that it makes you think twice before you sign off on a set of technology standards, software investments, deployment of yet another methodology, or a quick fix solution from those motivated by narrow self-interest.”.

William Ulrich, President of TSG, Inc

“An entertaining book full of anecdotes, technical nuggets and which effectively defuses many fads in software engineering.

Based on his many years of experience in the software trenches, he makes you rethink your own assumptions about software engineering. Agree or disagree with him, you will be refreshed by his down to earth view on our profession and by doing so he helps you avoid the banana peels in your next project.”

“I knew Darius was an excellent professional but, before reading his book, I didn’t know he was such a good and amusing writer!

From compilers development to agile methodologies, Darius brilliantly summarizes what happened in the last three decades and, through a well-working mix of serious facts and amusing anecdotes, gets to an accurate yet irreverent assessment of many software dogmas. As a seasoned IT professional, I’ve found this book to give voice to my darkest thoughts.

This is a book about people, that will keep you reading at night with a big smile (or grin…) on your face.”